The richest person in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 275: Frequent use of methods to change the script

In 2004, the Olympic Games left the deepest impression on many people.

But what many people don’t know is that the Internet will usher in the second browser war this year.

In fact, as early as the first year of the 21st century, Netscape, known as the first browser stock, fought a browser war with Microsoft.

This war was unfamiliar to many Chinese people because personal computers were not popular in the country at that time.

In order to win this war, Netscape and Microsoft frantically iterated their respective products, dazzling thousands of viewers.

After a hard battle, Microsoft finally came up with its trump card, bundling its Windows operating system and IE browser for sale. Netscape, which was in a state of disarray, began to try all kinds of methods, but eventually lost the support of the people and the market.

Of course, Microsoft is not unscathed.

Microsoft was also investigated under U.S. antitrust laws for bundling its operating system and browser. In July 2003, the groundbreaking Netscape Technologies Inc. was officially dissolved, with Microsoft paying “only” $7 million in compensation.

Since the first year of the 21st century, IE browser has demonstrated its extraordinary and unique charm, and in just three years it has occupied more than 80% of the global market share.

However, the huge wealth made IE browser gradually lazy and lax, and the speed of version iteration became slower and slower, from once a year to once every two years, and finally to once every five years.

As we all know, the 21st century is a period of rapid development of the Internet.

Various types of programming software and operating systems emerge in an endless stream, and the Internet community has developed into the community with the largest number of active users in the world. People are willing to contribute their ideas to a project and build high-rise buildings together.

In July 2003, the Mozilla Foundation was established with the goal of ensuring that Mozilla could survive without Netscape.

Many people may not know this name because it is a non-profit foundation.

But its product has definitely left a deep impression on many people - Firefox.

However, at this point in time, the development of browsers in China is worrying.

Microsoft defeated Netscape by relying on its monopoly. Later, because it did not pay attention to the interactive experience with users, its market share was slowly eroded by other browsers.

But today's domestic browsers are not destined to be monopolies, but they have contracted the disease of monopoly.

To put it generally, "not much ability, but a big temper."

The specific manifestation is that as long as you spend money on advertising, they will dare to put advertisements of more than 10 seconds when users open the browser, and they don’t care about the user experience at all.

Moreover, my browser thinks that you, as a user, can use this function, so it will keep recommending it to you, and will not stop unless you actually click on it, register, and log in.

It truly embodies the word "hooligan" to the fullest.

It is no wonder that Chinese people call the browsers at that time "garbage".

But no matter which Internet company it is, it cannot do without the most basic thing for surfing the Internet, which is the browser.

For example, if you want to use Baidu, you have to open the browser to use it.

Some browsers have built-in search engines.

For Baidu, this year is also a challenging year.

Because there are reports that Sohu will launch the world's first third-generation interactive search engine - Sogou in August this year, and will also launch their browser product - Sogou Browser at the same time.

Zhang Chen wanted to find a way to deal with Baidu in this complex technological innovation, so he had to start with the browser.

As long as the built-in search engines of most browsers on the market become non-Buniang in the future, Zhang Chen’s attack on Baidu will be considered to have initial effectiveness.

As for future market share and future direction, there are still too many variables.

Whether Google will be launched for some reason after entering the Chinese market as before, or with the arrival of the AI era, Microsoft's Bing Search will become the number one search engine in China, these are all things that will happen in the next ten or twenty years.

For now, Baidu is still preparing for its listing. As long as there is any disturbance in the market, its pace of listing will definitely be hindered.

Of course, correspondingly, Zhang Chen’s behavior will also be met with hostility from the financial backers behind Baidu.

He has also thought about developing his own browser and search engine.

However, after such a long period of development, the United States has already set up many barriers in this field.

If domestic browsers want to enter the market, they must act according to standards set by others. This is just the first obstacle on this road.

On the other hand, domestic browsers can also develop their own kernels, but the cost is too high.

For example, Google, which is controlled by Zhang Chen, has currently assembled more than 1200 Silicon Valley programmers to work on coding day and night.

Based on an annual salary of $25 per programmer, it would cost about $3 million a year.

If we take into account the annual hardware updates, trial and error in the research and development process, and the promotion of browsers, the annual cost will not be less than US$7 million.

This is an astronomical figure that many domestic Internet companies dare not even think about.

Of course, domestic labor costs are much lower, and that’s just changing the monetary unit from US dollars to RMB, but it’s hard to say about the actual strength.

After all, Internet elites with such capabilities have all gone to the United States to earn lucrative US dollars. Why should they stay in China and do the same job but get paid seven or eight times less?

Although Zhang Chen is rich, the more than 60 billion US dollars he just received can actually support the development of a browser from start to finish.

But this will lead to a fundamental problem - fighting against oneself.

He himself is one of Google's shareholders, and his shareholding is not small.

If he sets up a browser company, it would be unnecessary for the two companies to compete with each other for market share.

However, from another perspective, in order to prevent one company from becoming dominant and leading to an antitrust investigation, the two companies can work together to squeeze out market share.

The set of Love

The first thing Zhang Chen did after arriving on the set was to gather the screenwriters, assistant directors and others in the crew.

"Now that everyone is here, let me tell you why I called you here this time." Zhang Chen took out an A4 paper and asked Xue Yining to distribute it. "I need to revise the script."

"Change the script?"

The one who reacted the most was Tian Zhuangzhuang.

The film has been shot for more than a month. If we change the script now, it will easily cause the film to fail if one thing is not done well.

"Well, let's take a look first and then talk."

Zhang Chen didn't say anything else, but sat down with his arms folded.

The content in everyone's hands is actually the same, and the content is not long.

It took them just a minute to read it.

"Isn't it necessary?"

As a filmmaker who joined the film from the very beginning, Tian Zhuangzhuang knows very well what the core of this film is.

Zhang Chen said he wanted to change the script, but in fact he just added a scene.

This is not a big deal. After all, compared to large-scale changes, adding a scene will not change the entire story much, and there is no need to push the movie to reshoot.

But in Tian Zhuangzhuang's opinion, the original story is already perfect, and there is no need to add such an insignificant issue.

Moreover, in his opinion, this plot involves certain risks.

"If I do this, Baidu will definitely have an opinion, right?"

"It's good to have opinions."

"Aren't you afraid that he will sue you?" "First, I have enough money. Second, I haven't sued him yet."

Zhang Chen still holds the lawyer's letter in his hand.

At worst, they can just sue each other and see who can outlast the other.

"It's good that you have made up your mind. However," Tian Zhuangzhuang hesitated, "If you do this, what if you miss the grand prize?"

Zhang Chen was silent for a while, then asked a few people present a question: "Do you think I made the movie for awards?"

Zhang Chen's question was met with silence from everyone, but several crew members, including Tian Zhuangzhuang, looked as if it was a matter of course.

Making movies is all about fame and money.

The movie "Love" is clearly positioned as an art film.

If you want to sell box office tickets, you have to go the Kunnan route, which is to go through the three major international film festivals and then sell the copyrights to make money after winning the award.

But if we don’t win a prize, how can we make money from selling it?

"It's too small, the scale is too small." Zhang Chen looked at everyone with a smile, "Today I just want you to see when this plot is more suitable in the movie, not to ask you if you can put it in. Okay, let's get busy."

The others looked at each other in confusion and could only lower their heads to start discussing.

What can they do.

The entire crew was invested by Zhang Chen, and all expenses were paid by Zhang Chen.

Moreover, Zhang Chen is well-known for not being short of money.

They had reminded Zhang Chen as much as they should, but he still insisted on doing as he pleased, so they had no choice but to do as he was told.

If a movie loses money in the future, it can’t be blamed on them, that’s all.

Zhang Chen didn't have much to add, and the screenwriter team completed the revision of the script an hour later.

Zhang Chen looked at the script that Xin had received, flipped through it, and nodded with satisfaction: "Let's add this scene today."

Li Zhipeng and his wife Li Li are both retired music teachers. They are both over 80 years old and are recuperating at home.

They once loved each other very much, but until the wife suffered an unexpected stroke that left her lower body paralyzed, the old couple who had been in love for many years experienced the torture brought by illness.

Seeing his wife's health getting worse day by day, Li Zhipeng felt extremely tormented. He knew that his wife had to live a decent life.

However, the difficulty in moving, incontinence, pain, and gradual loss of language ability all tormented his wife's heart at all times.

Until one day, when he returned home and found his wife who had failed to jump off the building, the torment in his heart began to ferment, prompting him to urgently look for a way to treat his wife.

He also learned from his children that if he wanted to find an answer, the best way in this era is the Internet.

Li Zhipeng turned on the computer that he rarely used, put on his reading glasses, and used his two index fingers to clumsily search for ways to treat gout on the Internet.

Soon, with the help of Baidu, he found a hospital.

This hospital is right at the top of the entire search page, and according to the introduction it is a hospital with the most advanced technology in the country.

At this moment, Li Zhipeng felt that the whole world was full of life again.

With his hands trembling with excitement, he wrote down the hospital's phone number and address in his notebook, planning to take his wife there for treatment the next day.

"Crack!"

Zhang Chen stroked his chin and thought in front of the monitor.

I always feel that this plot is a bit deliberate and stiff.

But after thinking for a long time, he shook his head and said, "Okay, let's just shoot it this way. We can attribute the reason for Li Li's worsening condition to that hospital. It will make the husband feel more guilty."

"I think this plot makes the husband's inner struggle even more intense. Nothing is more devastating than making his wife's condition worse or even killing her with his own hands."

The actor who played Li Zhipeng, Mr. Lan Tianye, took off his reading glasses and watched the performance clip behind Zhang Chen.

"So, I have hit the jackpot?"

"I guess so. I can't say how the final film will turn out and how the audience will respond." Lan Tianye said calmly, "But I think that if my character feels more guilty, then when he finally decides to kill his wife, he will have more inner struggles, and the conflict in the plot will be more obvious."

After hearing the actor's feelings, Zhang Chen was speechless.

When he was writing the script, he thought that the movie would be a failure, but how could it turn out to have such an effect?

Yes, when Zhang Chen decided to change the script, he didn't think about how well the film would perform, or he no longer expected the film to win the Palme d'Or as it did in the original time and space.

Actually, there are two reasons.

One reason is that John Woo will be on the Cannes jury next year.

This Hong Kong director who has been in Hollywood for many years might use some unfair means against Zhang Chen, a new star in the film and television industry who is openly suppressing the Hong Kong entertainment industry.

It’s hard to say what role it can play, but at least Zhang Chen won’t get a share of the vote in his hand.

And sometimes, being backstabbed by your own people is more disgusting than being accused by outsiders.

Secondly, the purpose of winning the award is to sell the film to more countries in the world.

But for Zhang Chen, whether he wins an award or not, he can release his film worldwide.

It's just a matter of spending a little more money.

As long as the publicity gimmick is sufficient and the money is spent appropriately, it's fine.

In addition, Zhang Chen also hoped that John Woo would give him some trouble in this matter, so that he could legitimately use this to make a fuss, stir up some conflicts, and get more Chinese people to support his movie.

To put it bluntly, it's just playing the victim.

As for overseas, it is secondary, because his purpose is to publicize the disgusting aspects of Baidu's bidding ranking mechanism.

Therefore, at this stage of filming, Zhang Chen no longer viewed the movie "Love" as a work of art.

Nowadays, "love" is actually a business behind the scenes.

Because Cannes is held in May every year.

If I remember correctly, Baidu was listed on the Nasdaq in August.

The few months in between are enough for Zhang Chen to operate.

"Boss, will we be scolded if we do this?"

"Don't think too much, just do it first."

Zhang Chen gave Du Zhining a brief explanation over the phone.

Everyone worries about this and that.

He also didn't say to allow foreign Internet companies to capture the domestic market.